TY  - JOUR
A1  - Yang, Tao
A1  - Heydarian, Motaharehsadat
A1  - Kozjak-Pavlovic, Vera
A1  - Urban, Manuela
A1  - Harbottle, Richard P.
A1  - Rudel, Thomas
T1  - Folliculin Controls the Intracellular Survival and Trans-Epithelial Passage of Neisseria gonorrhoeae
JF  - Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
N2  - Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a Gram-negative obligate human pathogenic bacterium, infects human epithelial cells and causes sexually transmitted diseases. Emerging multi-antibiotic resistant gonococci and increasing numbers of infections complicate the treatment of infected patients. Here, we used an shRNA library screen and next-generation sequencing to identify factors involved in epithelial cell infection. Folliculin (FLCN), a 64 kDa protein with a tumor repressor function was identified as a novel host factor important for N. gonorrhoeae survival after uptake. We further determined that FLCN did not affect N. gonorrhoeae adherence and invasion but was essential for its survival in the cells by modulating autophagy. In addition, FLCN was also required to maintain cell to cell contacts in the epithelial layer. In an infection model with polarized cells, FLCN inhibited the polarized localization of E-cadherin and the transcytosis of gonococci across polarized epithelial cells. In conclusion, we demonstrate here the connection between FLCN and bacterial infection and in particular the role of FLCN in the intracellular survival and transcytosis of gonococci across polarized epithelial cell layers.
KW  - gonococcal invasion
KW  - folliculin
KW  - autophagy
KW  - polarized epithelium
KW  - polarized cell culture
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-211372
SN  - 2235-2988
VL  - 10
IS  - 422
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Auer, Daniela
A1  - Hügelschäffer, Sophie D.
A1  - Fischer, Annette B.
A1  - Rudel, Thomas
T1  - The chlamydial deubiquitinase Cdu1 supports recruitment of Golgi vesicles to the inclusion
JF  - Cellular Microbiology
N2  - Chlamydia trachomatis is the main cause of sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. As obligate intracellular bacteria Chlamydia replicate in a membrane bound vacuole called inclusion and acquire nutrients for growth and replication from their host cells. However, like all intracellular bacteria, Chlamydia have to prevent eradication by the host's cell autonomous system. The chlamydial deubiquitinase Cdu1 is secreted into the inclusion membrane, facing the host cell cytosol where it deubiquitinates cellular proteins. Here we show that inactivation of Cdu1 causes a growth defect of C. trachomatis in primary cells. Moreover, ubiquitin and several autophagy receptors are recruited to the inclusion membrane of Cdu1‐deficient Chlamydia . Interestingly, the growth defect of cdu1 mutants is not rescued when autophagy is prevented. We find reduced recruitment of Golgi vesicles to the inclusion of Cdu1 mutants indicating that vesicular trafficking is altered in bacteria without active deubiquitinase (DUB). Our work elucidates an important role of Cdu1 in the functional preservation of the chlamydial inclusion surface.
KW  - autophagy
KW  - Cdu1
KW  - ChlaDUB1
KW  - Chlamydia trachomatis
KW  - DUB
KW  - Golgi
KW  - xenophagy
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-208675
VL  - 22
IS  - 5
ER  -